Killeen Real Estate, Killeen Homes for Sale, Farms and Ranches in Killeen, Acreage and Raw Land for Sale in Killeen.

Killeen, Texas is a city within Bell county, Texas. Killeen, Texas is adjacent to the largest military base in the United States, Fort Hood. Homes for sale in Killeen, Texas range in price from $100,000 to $300,000 on average. Other cities adjacent to Killeen, Texas are Harker Heights, Texas and Copperas Cove, Texas.

In 1881, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway extended its tracks through central Texas, buying 360 acres a few miles southwest of a small farming community known as Palo Alto, which had existed since about 1872. The railroad platted a 70-block town on its land and named it after Frank P. Killeen, the assistant general manager of the railroad. By the next year the town included a railroad depot, a saloon, several stores, and a school. Killeen expanded as it became an important shipping point for cotton, wool, and grain in western Bell and eastern Coryell counties.

Until the 1940s Killeen remained a relatively small and isolated farm trade center, but this changed drastically after 1942, when Camp Hood (re-commissioned as Fort Hood in 1950) was created as a military training post to meet the demands of the Second World War. Laborers, construction workers, contractors, soldiers, and their families moved into the area by the thousands, and Killeen became a military boomtown. The opening of Camp Hood also radically altered the nature of the local economy, since the sprawling new military post covered almost half of Killeen’s farming trade area. The loss of more than 300 farms and ranches led to the demise of Killeen’s cotton gins and other farm-related businesses. New businesses were started to provide services for the military camp. Killeen suffered a recession when Camp Hood was all but abandoned after the end of the Second World War, but when Fort Hood was established as a permanent army post in 1950, the city boomed again.

Troop cutbacks and transfers in the mid-1950s led to another recession in Killeen which lasted until 1959, when various divisions were returned to Fort Hood. The town continued to grow through the 1960s, especially after the Vietnam War led to increased activity at Fort Hood. By 1970 Killeen had developed into a city and added a municipal airport, a new municipal library, and a junior college (Central Texas College).